Article Description

From the book

Creating and applying paragraph styles

Paragraph styles let you apply and globally update text formatting to speed up production and create a more consistent overall design. Paragraph styles incorporate all elements of text formatting, including character attributes such as font, size, style, and color, along with paragraph attributes such as indents, alignment, tabs, and hyphenation. They differ from character styles in that they are applied to entire paragraphs at once, not just to selected characters.

Creating a paragraph style

In this exercise you’ll create and apply a paragraph style to selected paragraphs. First, you will format the text in the document locally (that is, not based on a style). Then, you will have InDesign pick up this existing formatting and build it into a new paragraph style.

On page 2 of 09_Styles.indd,
adjust the view scale so
you can easily see the text.

Using the Type tool (),
drag to select the “Loose
Leaf Teas” subhead, which
follows the introductory
paragraph in the first column
of the document.

The easiest way to create a
paragraph style is to format
a sample paragraph using local
(not style-based) formatting
and then create a new style based
on that sample paragraph. Effectively,
this lets you see the style before
you build it. You can then efficiently
use the new style in the rest
of the document.

In the Control panel, click
Character Formatting Controls
(),
and specify the following:

In the Control panel, click
Paragraph Formatting Controls
(),
and increase the Space Before
()
to p3.

Now you’ll create a paragraph
style using this formatting so
that you can use it to format
the other subheads in the document.

Make sure that the text insertion
point is still in the text
you just formatted. If it’s
not already visible, open
the Paragraph Styles panel by
choosing Type > Paragraph
Styles.

The Paragraph Styles panel already
has a few styles provided for
you, including the default, [Basic
Paragraph].

TIP

If you change the Based On style—for
example, by changing the font—the
changes update all styles based
on that style. Unique characteristics
of styles based on other styles
are maintained. Basing styles
on other styles is helpful when
creating a series of related
styles, such as Body Copy, Body
Copy No Indent, Bulleted Copy,
and so on. If the font of the
Body Copy style changes, all
related styles will have the
font updated as well.

In the Paragraph Styles panel,
create a new paragraph style
by choosing New Paragraph
Style from the panel menu. The
New Paragraph Style dialog box
opens, displaying the formatting
you just applied to the subhead
in the Style Settings section.

Notice that the new style
is based on the Intro Body
style. Since Intro Body
was applied to the subhead
when you created the style,
the new style is automatically
based on Intro Body. By
using the Based On option in
the General section of the
New Paragraph Style dialog
box, you can use an existing
style as a starting point for
a new style.

In the Style Name box at the
top of the dialog box, type Head
2 to name this style
as the second largest headline.

To speed up text formatting
while typing in InDesign, you
can specify a Next Style for
a paragraph style. Each time
you press Enter or Return, InDesign
automatically applies the Next
Style. For example, your headline
style might automatically be
followed by your body paragraph
style.

Select Intro Body from the
Next Style menu, because this
is the style used for the text
following each Head 2 headline.

NOTE

If you are working on a laptop
without a numeric keypad, you
can skip this step.

You can create keyboard shortcuts
for easily applying styles in
InDesign.

Click in the Shortcut box,
hold down Shift (Windows) or
Command (Mac OS), and press 9 on
the numeric keypad of your keyboard.
(InDesign requires the use of
a modifier key for style shortcuts.)
Note that in Windows the Num
Lock key on the keypad must
be down to create or apply style
shortcuts.

TIP

If you don’t select Apply
Style To Selection, the new style
appears in your Paragraph Styles
panel but is not automatically
applied to the text you formatted—and
that text is not updated if you
need to globally update the style.

Select Apply Style To Selection
to apply this new style to the
text you just formatted.